Do the British know that an English language sketch rejected by the BBC has become an integral part of German and Scandinavian television culture at New Years Eve? It is repeated each New Years Eve since 1963 and can be seen up to a dozen times during that evening. That's an undisputed braodcast repetition record for Germany by the way. The sketch is called 'The 90th birthday' or 'Dinner for one'.
If you don't know what I'm talking about here's a bit about it from the Guardian.

The joke is that a sketch which gets its laughs from near endless repetitions of the dialogue "Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?" "Same procedure as every year, James" is repeated endlessly from year to year.

That sketch was topped only once when a never found out do-no-good switched the tapes with the New Years address of Chancellor Kohl boredcast (sorry, broadcast) on a now legendary New Years Eve and we could see and hear last year's address. No-one noticed at the TV station (same face, same empty words, same flag, same room) until he wished us a good 19xx and everybody said 'but that was the year that was'.

Kohl was 'not amused' and the TV stations missed the golden opportunity to replay the speech in all the years after. By now, that would be a ritual 'must watch' on each New Years Eve and would draw much more spectators than the actual New Years address by whoever is chancellor.

Wolfgang